Korg SV-2S 88

I was looking for an upgrade from my Korg D1, hoping to get something that had a larger, high-quality sound bank, more control over the sound and just more room for musicality in general.

The SV-2 seemed like a decent upgrade, but it had a little too many small problems that made it hard for me to justify the step up in price from my current D1.

Pros:
+ The keybed is nice, Korg's RH3 is a pretty solid mechanism
+ The design is lovely, it alone is enough to make you want to sit down and play it
+ Speakers are decent
+ The interface is really clear and I love the analog approach, I personally appreciate not having to navigate through lots of nested menus on a sub-par screen just to change a value
+ You can use any effect/amp sim on any sound bank, which opens up a lot of fun opportunities for sound design. Some keyboards limit this, only allowing you to use 'wah' on a clav, or an amp on an EP, for example.
+ All sounds (apart from acoustic pianos) are very high quality. Some of the best EP sounds I've heard, especially when it comes to the low-end

Cons:
- The speaker direction is a little strange for a stage keyboard. Any PA system is sure to bury their sound, so it would make more sense to have them face the player and act as near-field monitors

- For some reason the C3 and C2 keys on the acoustic pianos are incredibly muddy and boomy through the speakers. Every other note around them is fine though

- It's a little disappointing how little use expression/footswitch pedals are with this keyboard. Just changing volume, wah-intensity or rotary speed isn't enough to justify buying extra pedals. Why couldn't we assign the pedals to any other values?

- The included sustain pedal is pretty lackluster in terms of build quality and slides around really easily. They really should just include their DS-1H pedal in the box at this price range

- The potentiometers/knobs aren't too well built -- there's multiple millimeters of wobble to each knob, and it feels like they would be really easy to break off. Not something I'd expect at this price

- Adjusting the knobs is really fiddly. Selector knobs (sound, effect type, etc.) have a nice snap to them that is easy to work with. The value-knobs (intensity, depth, etc.) also have a slight snap to them, but they require a seemingly random amount of turns to even change the value by one. Quickly doing multiple turns works sometimes, but there's a chance it'll skip over a few steps. This means that if I wanted to change a value from 0 to 10, I'd have to spend a good while aggressively twisting the dials, which becomes a hassle over time

- The bottom of the keyboard is particle board. You won't see it, but it's not a material I'd expect to find in a keyboard in this price class

- I was surprised to see that the sheet music holder is made out of fairly flimsy plastic, whereas the one on my 600€ Korg D1 is made out of solid metal

- You can't layer different sounds right at the keyboard. Instead, you have to use a computer to create custom layered sounds and load them up onto the SV-2

- The mechanical pedal noise for the acoustic piano's is quite odd, it's really loud by default and cuts off in a jarring manner if you lift the pedal before it quiets down. You can adjust the volume of the pedal noise, but it's a per-sound thing, meaning you'd have to go through dozens of AP's and change it one-by-one

- The touch/velocity curve is reset every time you change the sound preset. This gets pretty annoying, especially since most of the AP's in the keyboard feel too soft by default. The setting can be saved, but again, it's a per-sound thing so you'd have to change it for over 70 different sounds separately

- The pipe organ (A6) has a strange attack curve, playing any faster lines with it feels like it's lagging behind

- The acoustic pianos lack quite a bit of body and clarity, wish there was something akin to the 'brilliance'-knob on the D1. Some of the sounds feel like I'm listening to the piano from a different room, and on some of the pianos it feels like the higher I go, the further away the sound source seems to move. The lowest two octaves are oddly muddy, making it a little difficult to tell chords apart. I also found it quite difficult to make notes sing out on top of the rest

- The decay on sustained notes is oddly short with some sounds, mainly AP's and EP's. Sometimes notes would die out before I had finished a long sustained phrase, or if I tried to have a long bass note playing below everything else

- Some sounds have a distracting hiss at higher volume levels

- The ~30 second boot up time is understandable given the physical tube valve, but a little annoying when you just want to quickly bang out an idea on the keyboard

- The longetivity and replacement process of the tube valve is a bit of a concern -- I've seen players reporting lifespans of less than 1,5 years, and if you live somewhere without easy access to a Korg service center the replacement process might be a hassle. Not to mention DIY'ing it will void your warranty

Ich habe mich im Thomann Ausstellungshaus in das SV2 verliebt. Eigentlich gefällt mir persönlich das Design nicht besonders, außerdem komme ich eher aus der digitalen sound design Welt und hatte für "vintage" nie viel übrig. Der Sound des SV2 und die Spielbarkeit dieses Pianos hat mich allerdings so berührt, dass ich es, nachdem ich das Arturia Keylab 88 (welches ich eigentlich als mein neues Master Keyboard ausgewählt hatte) kaufte, nachträglich noch bestellt habe. Das Keylab 88 habe ich inzwischen zurückgeschickt, weil das SV2 mein Herz erobert hat.

Pros:

Fantastischer und warmer Sound, sehr ausdrucksvoll und ich versinke jedes mal wenn ich es spiele darin

Die eingebaute Tube ist nicht nur optisch sehr schön implementiert sondern die amp simulationen die über sie laufen klingen genial (besonders Tweed finde ich unschlagbar)

Das RH3 Keybed ist für mich persönlich ein Traum. Ich habe einen Flügel und wenn ich meinen Flügel spiele und mich dann an das SV2 setze, muss ich nicht weinen.

Das mitgelieferte Pedal ist erstaunlich gut. Ich hielt es erst für schlecht, da die Verarbeitung zu wünschen übrig lässt, aber das Pedal erkennt wie schnell/fest man es tritt und verändert zb. bei akustischen Piano sounds die Lautstärke des Geräuschs, wenn sich die Dämpfer von den Saiten lösen. Dies funktioniert nur mit dem mitgelieferten Korg Pedal.

Die Lautsprecher klingen sehr gut


Cons:

Verarbeitung - Hier bin ich nicht übermäßig begeistert. Die schwarzen Kunststoffteile an den beiden Seiten fühlen sich billig an, die Drehknöpfe könnten etwas fester sitzen. Die Unterseite des Pianos sieht sehr roh aus.

Die Kontrolle die man mit der software über das Piano hat ist etwas begrenzt finde ich. Wahrscheinlich bin ich hier sehr anspruchsvoll, da ich digitales sounddesign gewohnt bin. Allerdings ist es auch ein Stage Piano und kein Synthesizer und eine gewisse Begrenzung im kreativen Prozess kann auch etwas sehr gutes sein.

Man muss die Knöpfe sehr weit drehen um Parameter zu verändern, hier würde ich mir Einstellungsmöglichkeiten wünschen. Man muss zb. bei einem reverb mix knob mehrfach neu ansetzen um von 0 auf 100 zu kommen.

Alles in allem liebe ich mein SV2. Die negativen Aspekte sind Kleinigkeiten im Kontrast zum Sound und der Spielbarkeit dieses Pianos. Für den Preis würde ich mir allerdings hochwertigere Materialien wünschen. Das Korg SV2 würde ich jedem empfehlen, für den Sound und Spielgefühl an erster Stelle stehen.

Let's be honest, this was initially an electric piano. It has a whole range of beautiful, dynamic electric piano sounds. It seems like for the SV-1, that was pretty much it. On the SV-2, Korg have really made an effort on the acoustic pianos too, and there are many great piano sounds here too. The surprise for me was one or two of the orchestral sounds - the strings particularly are fantastic, sounds I wouldn't expect to use. They're so good you play a few chords and it sounds like a movie soundtrack from some period drama with Kate Winslet in it! Or you play a few others and it makes you weep! Really, that was a surprise.
The organs are "ok", but are probably what I'll use least. There's no way to modify them (no drawbars - these are samples) so you either like what you're given or give up. They sound good, and the rotary effect is very good, but there's no flexibility like there would be on an organ. Plus the keyboard action suits a pianist not an organ player, so this was never an instrument intended for serious organists. That's no criticism, just a inevitable choice made by Korg.

Overall, it's a beautiful and inspiring instrument to play and I'm really glad I got it.

Bin sehr zufrieden mit dem Korg SV 2s. Der Klang und auch die Sound Auswahl ist hervorragend.
Die Bedingungen ist einfach und intuitiv. Perfekt für mein Homestudio und für mich. Spiele eigentlich Flügel, aber der Umstieg viel mir leicht. Die Gewichtung wirkt authentisch.
Die Software mit der die Sounds individuel gelayert werden kann ist ok. Leider nicht ganz so intuitiv wie das Instrument.
Ein Kritik Punkt und das ist auch der einzige ist, dass die Tastatur leider etwas Rutschig werden kann.

Alles in allem bin ich sehr glücklich mit der Entscheidung das Instrument gekauft zu haben.